Post Humanism & Aleph Intelligence: What it means to be human in a changing world
by Graie Hagans
Dear Friends,
As a new organizer, a decade ago, one of the first rules I ever learned was to meet people where they are, but never to leave them there.
Right now, when it comes to Artificial Intelligence, we’re being told that we’re at threat of being left behind. We are told to worry about our jobs, our data, and our security. And with good reason. But if you are anything like me, the anxiety you are carrying isn't just about the economic and political shifts of AI. We are living through a massive shift in reality, and what being human means. This is an exploration of how to meet ourselves as humans where we are and not leave ourselves behind.
Join me and The Shalom Center for a three-part series, Post Humanism and Aleph Intelligence.
Each week we’ll explore what it means to be human in a changing world - from climate collapse and ecological disaster that demands a world in which human supremacy is no longer sustainable, to the emergence of increasingly intelligent AI that creates a world where human supremacy may no longer be feasible. We’ll learn from Jewish and non-Jewish imaginative and prophetic scholarship to explore our changing relationship to our own humanness, the possibility of companion relationship with AI and the possibilities of a world ripped out of science fiction. And maybe we’ll find a place of human alignment strong enough to hold us to all our kin.
L’shalom,
Graie
Post Humanism & Aleph Intelligence
with Graie Hagans
Wednesdays
July 22nd-August 5th
7:00-8:30pm ET /
4:00-5:30pm PT
A three-part class exploring the consequences - good, bad, and expansive - of AI in a post-humanist and applied Jewish frame. This series offers us an opportunity to reconsider our relationship not just to AI, but to the bigger questions of what it means to be human in a world destabilized by such promiscuous technology.
Also upcoming from The Shalom Center
Pour Out Your Woes
with Rabbi Ilana Sumka
Thursday, July 23rd
1:00-2:00pm ET /
10:00-11:00am PT
A unique, participatory ritual in observance of Tisha b’Av, we will gather in synchronous community with people across the world to hear Eichah/Lamentations, write our own lamentations that we will dissolve in water, and pour out our woes, so that the water of our laments might catalyze seeds of personal and collective redemption. For this program, we’re experimenting with a digital/tactile “hybrid” ritual. If you register by July 13th, we will mail you a dissolvable strip of paper to use concurrently with others for this ceremony. If you register after July 13th, or you're based outside of the US, you may supply your own dissolvable paper, or any paper will do.
Sanctuary for the Apocalypse
With Gabriel Meyer
Tuesdays
August 4th-September 1st
12:00-1:00pm ET / 9:00-10:00am PT
A five-week sacred playshop co-creating sanctuary and spontaneous sacred community. Rooted in the prophetic ethical building blocks of justice, peace, love, and truth from the Hebrew tradition and other sacred nectars, this weekly drop-in space will utilize voice, movement, and guided meditations to serve as a sort of spirit medicine kit for these turbulent times.